Posting your YouTube videos in the Act Naturally section is fast and easy. But for those who haven't yet done it, it may be a bit daunting. I'll run down the instructions for first time posters now - after that it's a snap to share your work with the forum:

1) You must have an original video featuring yourself and one or more Rickenbacker instruments, and a YouTube account. Upload your video to your account and then go to that video's YT page. Be sure you enable embedding of your video.

2) On the top right side of the page you will find the small text fields with URL and embedding information, right below the YT account name. Click to select the embed info, and copy it to your clipboard.

3) Go here to the Act Naturally section and start a new topic (or reply to an existing one). At the point where you wish to insert the video in your post, click the youtube button found directly above the main text block and paste your embedding info in between the brackets (your cursor should be there already).

4) You can also combine in any links, pics, and text comments as usual. Hit the submit button and check your post for mistakes. Now is the time to make any corrections because the editing option will disappear after a couple of hours.

5) Kick back and wait for comments. It's easy and quick. Now you're a star!

For those of us who are just getting the hang of digital cameras, are there any recommendations for a reasonably-priced and user-friendly digital video/audio recording setup that would enable us to contribute to this thread?

I hesitate to recommend what I'm using because it's only for Macintosh and the quality is pretty ****** - it's simply my iSight webcam and QuickTime Pro. Actually the QT Pro part is good, very good, but I need to set up my real DV cam which is from JVC (DVM 50, IIRC), and to hook in my mixer and my decent mics. So I better get with that, because now I'm not lacking for incentive anymore. I see people asking about USB or firewire interfaces for sound, which may improve the quality as well, but I've used my Mac's simple sound-in jack without any drawbacks that I can see. iMovie or some other basic movie software can help you to put it all together.

kiramdear wrote:Oh, by the way, here's a tip: try to make your topic title as informative as possible so that others can search for particular songs or instruments with greater ease.

That's an excellent suggestion Kira. Also, I might suggest a few other ideas to keep the forum organized for your consideration- perhaps you could write a sticky post on some kind of "Act Naturally" recommendations (groundrules is such a harsh word)? In no particular order, here's what I'd like to see:

Instrument Listed in Subject LineArtist/Song Title Listed in Subject LineUse of "OM" acroynym (since I'm compiling them!) for Original Material performancesText replies ONLY to videos- no video replies (to make it easiere to FIND newly posted videos by all users!)

It might also be nice to somehow diffentiate LIVE performances (like a band playing) from home/studio covers or playing. Does this all seem to picky? I'm just thinking it might be nice to know what you're about to watch before you watch it! I love it all really, and will probably watch it all anyway! Heck, even the guitar stuff even though I don't know what I'd ever do with a fifth or sixth string!!!!

Interesting and helpful suggestions all, Robert, but it may be asking a bit much of some folks here to expect the full compliance that is needed to make them really effective as ground rules.

I think to the extent that people are willing to try such a complete labeling method, it's a great idea and I would applaud them for it. But for the others, I'd just want to let them be free and creative and get the videos in regardless. The text content of the posts as well as the titles will be searchable for those with a keyword or phrase that interests them.

Also, I feel that video replies may sometimes be appropriate and fun and will be searchable as well, if a few keywords are added in text.

In short, I guess I'd rather us err on the side of looseness and fun than risk inhibiting in any way any posters with something relevant to share with us. I think simple is best, as a rule, and we can respond to problems as they arise. To me, that's one of the beautiful things about the whole concept of a forum.

That said, this sticky topic is bound to be read by all and they can fly with your ideas or not - to the best of their ability. That just seems the most practical way to me.